INTRODUCTION TO GEOGRAPHY

Definition of the terms

✔ The term geography is derived from two Greek word geo meaning earth and graphien meaning to
write, draw or describe.
✔ The two words put together become geography- that means to draw write about or describe the
earth.
✔ Geography is the study of the earth as a home of man or It is the study of relations between
people and the environment or
🖎 It is the study of the distribution and the interrelationship of natural and human phenomena on
the earth’s surface.
Environment
🖎 Refer to all the external conditions of a particular place within which an organism lives, and
influences behaviour and activity of the organism( plant, animal or human).
🖎 Habitat is the physical location that an organism lives in with a particular set of
conditions or is is the place or "home" that an organism lives or is found e.g. forest or
grassland.
🖎 Ecology is the study of the interrelationships of organisms to each other and to their
environment.
✔ There are two types of environment :
1. Physical environment
2. Human environment
a) Physical environment
✔ Physical environment is made up of features that are not created by human beings although their
presence may have been influenced by human activities.
✔ It consist of natural physical conditions including:

1. Weather 6. Drainage
2. Climate 7. Vegetation
3. Animals
4. Soil
5. Landforms
b) Human environment
✔ Human environment comprises of activities of people on the earth’s surface such as:

1. Farming 5. Settlement
2. Forestry 6. Transportation
3. Mining 7. Trade
4. Tourism 8. Industry

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 BRANCHES OF GEOGRAPHY

a) Physical geography
✔ It is mainly concern with the land forming processes that shape the surface of the earth and the
resultant features.
✔ It also involves the study of weather and climate.
✔ The main areas concern for the physical geography include:
🖎 The earth and the solar system
🖎 Weather and climate
🖎 Vegetation and soils
🖎 External land forming processes e.g. mass wasting
🖎 internal land forming processes e.g. folding, faulting, volcanicity & earth quakes

✔ It includes the study of:

- The shape of the landscape (called Geomorphology)
- Weather (called Meteorology)
- Climate, including description and explanation of distribution of climate and pattern (called
Climatology)
- The location of plants and animals (called Biogeography)
Rocks and soils that make up the earth (called Geology)

b) Human and economic geography

✔ It involves the study of human activities on the earth’s surface. These activities results from man’s
exploitation and processing of the available resources.
✔ The major area of study include
🖎 population(growth, distribution and factor influencing them) and urbanization
🖎 forestry
🖎 wildlife, tourism and fishing
🖎 mining, energy and industries
🖎 trade
🖎 Transport and communication
🖎 Agriculture
🖎 Management and conservation of the environment
c) Practical geography
✔ This branch gives learners opportunity to develop practical skills. It enables them to develop
practical understanding and interpretation of geographical information.
✔ The main areas covered here are :
🖎 map work
🖎 photograph work

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 🖎 field work / study and
🖎 Statistical Methods

Why study geography in schools?

Geography is learnt in schools for a number of reasons:

1. To acquire knowledge about our environment, its nature, characteristics, components,

utilization, and how to control it for both the present and the future generations.
2. To understand and explain how man interacts with his surroundings in different environments,
his achievements, problems and solutions.
3. It helps us to be aware of the features within our environment, how they are formed, the benefits
we get from them and the possible dangers associated with them.
4. Being a career subject, it equips students with skills to enable them to become professionals, such
as, surveyors, planners, geologists and environmentalists as to earn a living.
5. It enables learners to develop the skills of observing, reading, analysing and interpreting maps,
photographs, charts, diagrams and statistical data.
6. Encourages international awareness, interaction and cooperation for it teaches interdependence
among people and geographical phenomena at all levels.
7. Through the study of fieldwork, geography teaches one how to manage time properly by drawing
a time schedule and adhering to it.
8. It enables us acquire basic skills and knowledge, which contributes to local, regional and
national development.
9. It enables understand the origin of the earth, solar system and the internal structure of the earth
hence making space exploration and aviation easy

Sources of Information in Geography

✔ Geographical knowledge can be acquired from different sources including:

🖎 Classroom teaching by teachers

🖎 Reading news [papers, magazines, journals]
🖎 Interpreting maps, photographs and pictures
🖎 Watching TVs, videos, listening to radios
🖎 Through workshops, seminars, symposiums
🖎 And the environment
🖎 Statistical abstracts
🖎 Census

Relationship between Geography and Other Disciplines

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✔ Geography as a subject relates widely with other subjects/disciplines. This includes Agriculture,
Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Civil Engineering, History, Demography, Medicine,
Economics etc. It borrows ideas and interacts with a number of disciplines on different ways.
✔ This include:
1) History
δ History studies past events. Geography tries to explain where and why they take place.
δ An historian uses geographical information or techniques like maps, charts and graphs to show
movements such as migration.
δ The geographer uses an historian’s data to draw conclusions.

2) Meteorology
δ This is the study of atmospheric (weather) condition of a given place at a specific time.
δ Meteorological information is important to geographers for locating and classifying regions of
different parts of the world.
3) Mathematics
δ This is the study of numbers or figures.
δ Geography uses mathematical techniques such as pie charts and graphs to analyze and present
statistical and geographical data such as population structures and composition.
δ Geography also uses mathematical formulae to calculate areas, distances, densities and sizes
4) Biology and Ecology
δ This involves the study of living organisms (plants and animals) focusing on their structure
δ Ecology is the study of the interrelationship between living organisms and their surrounding
environment.
δ Geography focuses on the distribution of living organisms and the factors influencing their
distribution.

5) Medicine
δ This deals with diseases, causes and possible cures.
δ Geography deals with the studies of distribution of pests and other disease causing vectors and how
they influence human activities on earth.
6) Geology
δ This is the study of rocks; origin, structure and composition
δ The study of rocks enables geographers to know their distribution, their mineral content and the
location of some minerals and soil fertility in different areas.

7) Economics
✔ This deals with the study of the production, distribution and consumption of commodities.
✔ It focuses on money and trade.

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✔ Geography focuses on the exploitation of resources, method of production, movement of
commodities and their consumption.

8) Agriculture
✔ This is the cultivation of crops and rearing of animals.
✔ Geography studies farming activities and the factors affecting them.

9) Demography
✔ This is the study of people, their composition and structure.
✔ Geography is concerned with the distribution of people on the earth’s surface and population changes
and the factors influencing their distribution.

10) Chemistry
✔ This is concerned with the chemical composition of substances as minerals, soils and rocks and
mining.
✔ Chemistry explains the methods of purification of metals and geography borrows this knowledge in
mining.

11) Physics
✔ This deals with the study of heat, light and other forms of energy and how they affect other objects.
✔ Through astronomy (study of heavenly bodies e.g. stars), geographers are able to understand the
relationship that exists between the sun, moon and the earth.

12)Civil engineering
✔ This deals with the construction of facilities such as roads, railways, bridges and dams, which affect
the population structure and settlements patterns in an area.
✔ Geography explains their importance through transport and communication, harnessing of
hydro-electric power, provision of water for irrigation, fishing industrial and domestic use.
✔ Geographical information on soils, rocks and topography, natural vegetation such as forest and
other physical features enable engineers to come up with appropriate facilities for different places.

13)Climatology
✔ It is the study of various climatic conditions at different places in terms of rainfall, temperature,
wind and cloud cover.

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✔ Geography uses this information to classify the world into climatic zones and also relate the climatic
condition of a place to the types of vegetation and soil in their place agriculture and people.

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